Ty Gibbs Steals Road America Win from Kyle Larson

Photo Credit to Joe Gibbs Racing via Twitter

NASCAR

Ty Gibbs Passes Kyle Larson on Last Lap for Road America Xfinity Win

ELKHART LAKE, Wis. – By all accounts, Kyle Larson was the class of the field for much of the day at Road America. Making a rare Xfinity start with Hendrick Motorsports, the 17 team took both Stages from the pole in dominant style. On an overtime restart however, Ty Gibbs was allowed one more shot at the victory. On the last lap, Gibbs’ 54 got by Larson cleanly and drove off to win four of 2022.

Aside from Larson leading the way for most of Saturday, the opening Stages did see one major accident. While racing hard for position on a restart, Noah Gragson and Sage Karam swapped paint multiple times. Going into turn three, Gragson had enough of the 45’s antics, and just turned right into him. This would trigger a dust cloud and major crash behind them. In total, 13 drivers would be involved in this melee, with Tyler Reddick, Landon Cassill, and Brandon Brown taking the worst damage. Gragson clearly lost his cool for a moment, and ended several driver’s days as innocent bystanders.

The overtime restart would be triggered when Cole Custer crashed late out of third place. The 07 had briefly taken the lead earlier from Larson. However, his day ended early with a brake rotor explosion in turn five.

It appeared that nobody had anything to challenge Kyle Larson all day. Even when restarting fourth, Larson was able to go three-wide up the middle to retake the lead. Despite having the best car all day, Larson had to hold off a hungry Ty Gibbs on one more overtime restart.

On the restart, Larson got a jump but Gibbs stayed within reach of the 17. On the last lap, Gibbs worked over Larson, eventually getting by him in turn three. Larson missed this corner, allowing the 54 to drive off to the victory. The 19-year-old grabbed the win over the defending Cup Series champion.

“I don’t know,” Gibbs said on how he beat Larson. “I just want to say all glory to Jesus Christ, and thank you to my team and Monster Energy. Had a fun time racing with Kyle, I thought it was going to get a little rough there. But he’s such a great competitor and good person. We played golf the other day, so I want to tell him thanks for the golf lessons. I still suck, but thank you so much. This is awesome. I can’t believe it, this is just wonderful.”

“I feel like we were a little bit faster in the first half of the track,” Gibbs explained. “The last two sectors, I feel like we were not as fast. But right now, I just need to earn respect back, and that’s what I’m doing. I feel like I got my lesson, so just need to learn and not make mistakes. I made plenty of them today, thought I lost the race on that one restart. Thankful to get this one back, but I still got to work on those early mistakes.”

Did Gibbs earn the respect of the defending Cup Series champion? Road America marked Larson’s first Xfinity start since 2018, so it was the first time Larson and Gibbs were on track together. “Yeah definitely,” Larson stated. “He was able to pass me without even laying a bumper on me at all. When he passed me clean I felt like I should not use him up. He ran me clean, so I was going to run him clean. He just got my angles messed up for a few corners. He did a really good job executing and I didn’t.”

Behind Gibbs and Larson, top finishers included Josh Berry, Austin Hill, Brandon Jones, AJ Allmendinger, Riley Herbst, Noah Gragson, Jeremy Clements, and Ryan Sieg.

With 10 races left until their Playoffs, Xfinity will be back in action next week from Atlanta Motor Speedway. Coverage of the Alsco Uniforms 250 kicks off at 5:00 p.m. ET Saturday on USA Network, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. The second race on the new superspeedway-style surface, Ty Gibbs won here in March. Can the 54 go back-to-back, and earn his fifth checkered flag of the season? 

Written by Peter Stratta

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Photo Credit to Joe Gibbs Racing via Twitter